April 2021 - The Running Mann

28th April 20219th December 2021

Life Lessons from the Road: Use Goals to Drive your Journey

When it comes to major undertakings, we’re often told “It’s a journey, not a goal.” However, I’d argue that goals are vital to ensure that you make progress on your journey – and I’ve got the data to back this up!

Working in the corporate world, I’ve been on the receiving end of major change management transformations – and in several cases I’ve been partially responsible for inflicting them on sizable chunks of the workforce.

Studies suggest that up to 80% of organisational change initiatives fail. I contend that one of the major reasons for this dismal performance is that we place all the emphasis on the journey at the expense of the goals. Goals give impetus to the journey and without goals your journey is likely to result in aimless wandering in the wilderness.

Who better to highlight the impact of goals on performance than 20,000 Comrades runners! Continue reading “Life Lessons from the Road: Use Goals to Drive your Journey”

17th April 202117th April 2021

Little Rock Marathon, Arkansas, USA (A Little ‘Lost’ in the USA)

(Marathon #67 / International Marathon #13 / 2 March 2008)

My standard process for entering US marathons involves looking at marathonguide.com’s calendar and figuring out (a) which marathons are still open for entry and (b) can be reached fairly easily with a flight re-routing. For this trip to the US, I had to do the marathon planning whilst on holiday in Japan, so I did my best navigating of the web that I could on a Japanese keyboard. I managed to get onto the marathonguide site and found the Little Rock Marathon, and saw that I could still enter and easily route my flights via “Little Rock, AR.”

Not being completely up to speed on American postal codes and state acronyms, I thought AR meant Arizona, so there I was thinking this would mean running in what I assumed would be distinctive desert terrain. I had never run in Arizona before and was really looking forward to the experience, and it therefore came as a bit of a shock to me when the pilot announced our imminent arrival in Little Rock, Arkansas! Continue reading “Little Rock Marathon, Arkansas, USA (A Little ‘Lost’ in the USA)”

8th April 202115th June 2021

Life Lessons from the Road: It’s a Jog, not a Sprint

Business agility has recently become a big buzzword in the corporate world. If you work for a large corporate there’s a good chance that you are currently part of a ‘business agility transformation‘. These are characterised by consultants throwing Japanese words around like ninja stars in a pot-noodle eastern* and lots of talk about sprinting and scrumming.

* as opposed to a spaghetti western.

The good news is that sprinting is really easy – even if the last time you did any running was in PE class at school when you were forced to. Everyone can manage a sprint: It’s a short burst of energy, after which you’re doubled over gasping for breath and can’t run any more. Continue reading “Life Lessons from the Road: It’s a Jog, not a Sprint”